[phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /viewtopic.php on line 988: date(): It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected the timezone 'UTC' for now, but please set date.timezone to select your timezone.[phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /viewtopic.php on line 988: getdate(): It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected the timezone 'UTC' for now, but please set date.timezone to select your timezone.Portent Alliance • View topic - Journal of a mage

Perhaps you spotted the red-headed Blood Elf on a visit to Silvermoon. She tends to sit in public places: on a bench in the Bazaar, by the fountain near the Sunfury Spire, or between the auction house, bank, and inn on the eastern side of the city.

If you have seen her, she has probably seen you.

She watches the people around her like a hawk...or more accurately, like a rogue training to the level of Spymaster, taking careful mental notes of every detail that she later records in her journal.

The following are excerpts from this journal, documenting daily life on Azeroth from the Blood Elf perspective, and her analysis of what she sees.

An Introduction.

I record these observations solely to maintain an unbroken, and hopefully low-bias, history of our people. To leave a gap in our history due to the unfortunate circumstances that befell our land would also leave much to supposition should anyone in the future care to understand who the Sin'dorei were during these days of war.

In short, we are a proud, determined people willing to take whatever steps necessary in order to survive. Art and culture, knowledge and learning are just a few of the aspects of the Sin'dorei that we cherish and will go to great lengths to fight for. That said, the worst of our traits have also floated to the surface over the few years since Silvermoon was razed.

We mages are trained to be observant and analytical in order to further our pursuit of knowledge and research. However, I feel that always watching others makes us lose sight of the path we are on, and so I have recently turned my focus back to my own people. The following conclusions are drawn from what I have personally witnessed.

_________________

"A hit is hard to resist, and I never miss. I can take you out with just a flick of my wrist." ~Garbage

Looking around and listening to the people who congregate in public spaces, I hear titles of nobility and claims of being descended from royal houses uttered from the lips of one rag-wearing Blood Elf to another. Introductions like these are oft repeated in the taverns and Bazaar, almost to the point of ritual.

By my count, there are more nobles in the city now than there were prior to the attack on Quel'Thalas. This count, of course, makes no sense when numbers are compared. Our population was diminished to staggeringly low numbers, and the majority of the nobles of the city were trained in the art of war. One can draw the conclusion that of all the status levels of citizens, the nobility took the greatest hit, leaving very few to rebuild their families and govern the city.

However, in listening to the conversations in public spaces over the past year, I have heard no less than 4 different people proclaim to be the next, and final, person in line to House Theron after our Regent Lord. Two claim relation to our new Ranger General. I'm sure there is an uncountable number who assume a branch of the Windrunner family tree. And I have even witnessed one girl walking through the city claiming the Sunstrider family name, and I am certain she would have been lynched if it wasn't clear she was already out of her mind. These and similar claims by multiple people prompted much research and information gathering.

My own status, while relatively low, afforded some bonus insight to the situation: I came across a person claiming to be a member of a family I had some acquaintance with. This person was wearing a brooch and signet ring bearing that family's crest, and had intimate knowledge of the family tree and history. He was convincing in his assertion that he was the sole survivor of his house's destruction. However, I knew this family well enough to know they were entirely lost to battle, and recognized this person as their valet/butler who had managed the daily tasks within the estate prior to the destruction of Silvermoon.

Similar examples of identities stolen from the dead heroes who defended our fair city, as well as the identities of their family members, were uncovered through further information-gathering. With few survivors to protest the false claims, and no one to defend the homes from looting (family crests and papers of citizenship are as, if not more, valuable than the property where they were found), survivors have been able to reinvent their lives and establish a higher class status and standard of living than they once had.

_________________

"A hit is hard to resist, and I never miss. I can take you out with just a flick of my wrist." ~Garbage

After this discovery, I once asked the various trainers why they allowed members into our ranks when many applicants clearly forged their documents and claimed false identities. The response from them was one of need: “Our membership was obliterated. We don't have time or manpower to investigate every applicant's true background. We need to train up our ranks and prepare ourselves.” The overall concern was not so much for the dishonesty in identity, but more for the need to refill the class ranks with any warm body capable of the tasks and talents of each guild.

This shows a positive side to how the devastation of Silvermoon affected the city's leadership: Less emphasis is put upon titles and birthrank, and instead our people are encouraged and welcomed to better themselves through accomplishments and heroicism. Training is no longer reserved for the elite in class/family/birth status, but open to any who seek and prove themselves to be skilled defenders of our people.

There is still the underlying concern of dishonesty and theft, as well as instability caused by those who cling to the notion that titles of nobility (whether genuine or false) trump effort and accomplishment. We shall see how these issues pan out in the future, especially considering how the top tier of Silvermoon government has changed in such a similar fashion: Our Prince, the last of his line, is no longer held in high regard, and instead we follow our Regent Lord who rose through the ranks of the Farstriders to have his position bestowed upon him.

_________________

"A hit is hard to resist, and I never miss. I can take you out with just a flick of my wrist." ~Garbage

The previous observation of the positive direction of Silvermoon's government is not to presume there is no strife, uncertainty, or even corruption amongst our people. Again, as a mage, I can understand the quest for power and better control of the magics that are as part of us as the air we breathe. But there are many examples of people who have fallen from a mere interest in growing stronger to a debilitating obsession with power. Everyone from our Prince down has felt the change since the Sunwell was destroyed. And for some, those changes have caused further biological degeneration.

The Wretched, as we call them, are perhaps the lowest of the low, attacking anyone and anything for a magical fix. These elves have succumbed to their mana addiction to the point where they are hardly recognizable as elves at all. The Sin'dorei reject these creatures as kin the same way the Forsaken reject the mindless Scourge.

“Above” the Wretched, clinging to their sanity with a tenuous grasp, are those who have lost their minds either to their mana addiction, or in order to sate those pains, a developed blood thistle addiction. Many of these elves are also traumatized from the razing of Silvermoon, stressed to the point where they have lost their grip on reality. These poor souls have a common ailment: they often babble about being creatures of great strength or power skulking about in Blood Elf form, unnoticed by other elves and visitors to the city. Such psychological disorders usually stem from feelings of cowardice, helplessness, and survivor's guilt from the time the city fell around them. It is only logical that their minds turn to daydreams of power and heroicism to make up for the trauma they faced. On occasion, those who did try to defend the city have the same delusions, usually because mentally they feel they did not do enough to save the city, and watched as their loved ones died around them, martyrs to the cause, while they did not make the ultimate sacrifice.

I note that there have been many Forsaken apothecaries who are willing to “help” these elves, taking them in as patients. It does not escape observation that many of these souls who head to the Undercity for “aid” either never return, or come back to Silvermoon in worse mental shape than before. However, it is in my interest to leave investigation of those practices to the authorities (namely, the Priesthood of Silvermoon) who have a better understanding of the medical practices used upon the mentally deranged.

Beyond the physical/emotional/mental/behavioral changes caused by trauma and addiction, there is also a further quest for power by Blood Elves who do have enough semblance of control over their faculties that they are, perhaps, the more dangerous and subversive of our people. Prince Kael'thas is perhaps the most obvious example of such corruption. Sadly, this descent is gradual enough that it's often unnoticed until it is too late.

The tug of addiction was overwhelming to many Blood Elves, so when Kael'thas sent back Grand Magister Rommath to report that a new “paradise” was found in Outland, many survivors left Silvermoon to seek relief and follow the man we looked up to as our leader. To this day, there are many pilgrims in Outland who ignore the reports of the type of “relief” offered by the Prince's Sunfury sect of Blood Elves, and still risk their lives to join those ranks.

Here again we have an issue the promise of power, as well as security of “what is known,” luring people away from Silvermoon, fracturing the fragile cohesion we are slowly building. Instead of steady growth, they run frantically to the only thing they know, ignoring the warning signs we still see within the city.

***At this point, there are clearly a few pages torn from the journal, ending this entry***

_________________

"A hit is hard to resist, and I never miss. I can take you out with just a flick of my wrist." ~Garbage

Members of the other Horde races flocked to Silvermoon when we joined, perhaps to find out more about us. In turn, we visited their capital cities, discovering culture that, until recently, was considered “bad” and “evil.” I admit, we didn't know any better, and let the battles of the past color our impressions of what is known as Warchief Thrall's “New Horde.”

Bias and suspicion remains. We are members of the Horde, but without Lady Sylvanas Windrunner vouching for us, we would have been outcast from both sides in the fight.

I am certain that is why, of all the “races” of the Horde, we Blood Elves trust the Forsaken the most. And even then, there is a certain amount of distrust. Lady Sylvanas was one of our own: the former Ranger General of Silvermoon. But the Forsaken, the actual humans who fell and were raised as undead later to regain their wills and souls, they generally harbor a bitterness and anger toward all other humans.

From my own perspective, I can't seem to blame them. They were left to die, abandoned by other humans who refused to help them. When they were freed, the humans who left them for dead turned to hunting them as abominations. I have seen the cruelty and arrogance (imagine that word to describe another race coming from a Blood Elf!) of humans, and so can understand to a point why the Forsaken would want their revenge.

Rumor has it that the apothecaries in the Undercity are working on modifying a strain of the plague that turned them, but so it only affects humans who are still alive. It seems the idea is to bring down those humans who hunt the Forsaken to suffer the same fate. I can only hope that should these plans be real and they come to pass, that their medical “talents” are thorough and do not ravage all living beings like the original Scourge plague did.

While much of this is speculation, especially in regards to sponsorship by Lady Sylvanas, the evidence is plentiful and we Sin'dorei must watch out for our own lives.

Our relationship to the Orcs, Trolls, and Tauren is only established because of the Forsaken. We have gotten a better understanding of the people behind the more “beastial” members of the Horde, but we still remember how the “old” Horde came to Quel'thalas to ravage our lands.

Despite being from a different tribe, Blood Elves and Trolls have a history of war. I am sure that the Darkspear are aware of their “cousins'” battles against us. In turn, the Sin'dorei are left wondering when and if the Darkspear will turn against us for what we did to the Amani in establishing a home in Quel'thalas.

And we cannot forget the waves of Orcs crashing upon our borders. Blood-tainted though they were, we remember the fierce battles that ravaged our lands and people and threw us into the arms of the humans of Lordaeron. We know what it's like to be tainted now...and we wonder how truly cleansed the Orcs are from the blood pact their people made in the past.

Finally, the Tauren: perhaps the most agreeable of the Horde races. And yet, through the Cenarion Circle, they share a connection and even neutral friendship with the Night Elves. We defend each other through our loyalty to the Horde, and even allow one of their Druids to claim a small garden in Silvermoon as her own. But if it came down to it, would they defend Silvermoon against an invasion of Night Elf druids loyal to the Cenarion as we would defend Thunder Bluff against the entirety of the Alliance?

_________________

"A hit is hard to resist, and I never miss. I can take you out with just a flick of my wrist." ~Garbage

It's only natural that my last entry be followed by the feelings we Sin'dorei generally feel toward the Alliance races, although I admit this will probably be colored by my own bias due to experiences with them. I will do my best to maintain a more general perspective, but could not write this in good conscience without that disclaimer.

I have read Warchief Thrall's history of his people and how the orcs came to know, and later nearly destroy, the Draenei. I can also sympathize with their anger toward the Sin'dorei for the attacks on their people by Kael'thas and his followers, resulting in the crash of the Exodar on Azeroth.

However, for as noble and honorable as the Draenei claim to be, I find it ironic that they do not know how to forgive.

The orcs of Thrall's Horde are not the demon-blood tainted mindless beings who tried to eradicate the Draenei. Thrall has made a point of helping those races who are in need, and while many Sin'dorei see that as protecting the weak who would be better off culled out, we cannot deny the Horde under Thrall's guidance took us in when it looked grim for our people. Blood Elf and Troll can find common ground despite our negative past relationship...but Draenei cannot forgive? Draenei can overlook the continued crimes committed by the Alliance races, and yet declare war on all Blood Elves based on the actions of one sect that even we condemn?

They perpetually claim to be victims of their circumstances. Yet they made conscious choices to put themselves where they are now.

Their brand of “honor” is convenient at best. They are judged by the company they keep.

_________________

"A hit is hard to resist, and I never miss. I can take you out with just a flick of my wrist." ~Garbage

I would say that Dwarves are the most agreeable of the Alliance races, except they have been known to send “ambassadors” to Silvermoon who have turned out to be spies working with the cabals of Night Elf Sentinels found in Eversong and Ghostlands.

We do not take kindly to spies.

_________________

"A hit is hard to resist, and I never miss. I can take you out with just a flick of my wrist." ~Garbage

More than any of the other races, most of my personal experience is with humans. I spent a few years studying in Dalaran, and the elvish population in that mage city was far outnumbered by the human population.

All of the good and bad that I reported about the Sin'dorei is also found within the human race. However, with their much shorter lifespans, their emotions and actions appears to be a much wider, more extreme spectrum from being compressed into fewer years. I believe humans are just as capable of true good and evil as elves or even dragons, but instead of developing slowly over centuries, human behaviors are more apparent from quick development over mere years or decades. Perhaps it's just a matter of perspective, and I'm sure short-lived humans would disagree with me. It's all relative to how one defines “lifetime.”

That said, I find humans to be overly aggressive in comparison to Sin'dorei. They are driven to accomplish as much as they can in their short lives. They may be driven by career, ambition, philanthropy, hormones.... They move and adapt quickly to change, but are also stubborn in their ways as they tend to be short-sighted.

We Sin'dorei used to be on friendly terms with the humans. We found them to be like-minded and worthy students of arcane magic. So we shared what we could and worked together, forging pacts and contracts to help each other.

But humans were unable to uphold their promises. Quel'thalas burned when the orcs of the “old Horde” and later the Scourge invaded and the humans did not help, abandoning us to a gruesome fate we fought to save humanity from. And although our homeland was laid to waste and our people suffered, Prince Kael'thas took those healthy enough to fight to help the humans of Lordaeron. Grand Marshal Garithos sent them on suicide missions, forcing them to accept the help of the naga to survive and accomplish their missions. Their reward was to be arrested and scheduled for execution. They escaped, but I believe they were driven to a worse situation for themselves and, if rumors are true, for everyone.

At this point, I must proclaim my bias: I knew and associated with humans in Dalaran, and know they are not all like Garithos. However, racism against elf-kind is common in human cities, and they did nothing to condemn Garithos' actions. As a result, our beloved prince—a man I respected as a fellow mage and leader of our people who stood strong in the face of losing his family and homeland to war where lesser people would break down—was thrust into a situation that led to his eventual temptation by evil forces and betrayal of his own people.

Had one human stood against Garithos I believe Kael'thas would not have been driven to that end, and any forces he unleashes upon Azeroth are the direct result of human action...or more appropriately, human inaction. Again, I believe this is due to a lack of consideration for long term consequences stemming from human short-sightedness and ambition for power because humans are shorter-lived.

_________________

"A hit is hard to resist, and I never miss. I can take you out with just a flick of my wrist." ~Garbage

*Several paragraphs are written and scratched out with furious pen strokes. If you look closely, words like “tree-hugging,” “crunchy,” “bleeding-heart,” “liars,” and “unevolved” may be seen within the scribbles.*

*In calm, block letters, the following note is on the page:*

RETURN TO THIS ENTRY AT A MUCH LATER DATE.

_________________

"A hit is hard to resist, and I never miss. I can take you out with just a flick of my wrist." ~Garbage

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